Top 1% of U.S. taxpayers earn more income than entire bottom 50% of U.S. taxpayers.
Where is the possibility of a thriving middle class in that simple fact? Simple: There isn't any. That sort of concentration of wealth in the hands of a few has no place for a middle class. And a nation without a middle class is not sustainable -- without a broad and prosperous middle class, a nation is unable to build the supply of human capital needed to foster innovation and economic growth, because poor people lack access to the resources -- both educational and capital -- needed to innovate.
And of course let's not forget the plight of the working poor either -- the only constituency whose taxes go up under the Obama plan. I suppose the next step is to give the bottom 40% of the American people only 3/5ths of a vote apiece. It's not as if there isn't precedent after all. Slaves shouldn't have the same right to vote as the rest of us, right? Right?!
Sadly, the American people keep voting back into office the same corrupt assholes who defend this kind of bullshit, time after time. If futility is defined as doing the same thing multiple times and expecting a different outcome, the American voter's behavior is the ultimate in futility. Continually casting your vote for the most corrupt asshole, rather than carefully researching the candidates' views and background and voting for the best candidate, gets you this -- a nation that is spinning out of control, and which isn't going to come out of this tailspin until it utterly crashes into utter national disaster. 30 years. Max. That's all the U.S. has left, and given the utter stupidity of the average American, who keeps voting for the same corrupt cretins over and over again, I see no hope that this could be reversed. There simply is no "there" there in the average American's cretinous inbred incurious anti-intellectual holy roller Bible-babbling "mind" (in quotes, because repeating talking points handed down to you by religious figures as if they meant anything isn't a "mind", fuck, parrots can do that!).
As JazzBumpa is so fond of saying, WASF. I am glad I have no children or grandchildren who will be affected by the collapse. If you do... leave. There is no stopping this downbound train.
-- Badtux the Gloomy Penguin
Tux, I reckon that if Amerikkka has 30 years, the clock started ticking in 1980, when Raygun was put into office so that Bush the First could run things from behind the scenes the way that Cheeeeeeeney did with Bush's dry-drunk son. Maybe the clock was turned back a bit by Clinton's years, but the expiration date is close. It seems like the tempo of downfall is increasing, like how an avalanche gains speed.
ReplyDeleteAs for LEAVING, it does make all this garbage less threatening to watch. I'd be freaking if I was still there. Sad to see, though, like watching someone die when they're still young. Especially because the death was self-inflicted and unnecessary.
Oh, I expect democracy has less than 10 years left to go in the US. Either there will be a military takeover (and note that our military's leadership is now dominated by Christofascists who view everything via a lens of being God's soldiers) or the country will disintegrate entirely into civil war and anarchy followed by a military-oriented fascist dictator taking over, but I expect that by the time I'm retirement age, there won't be much to retire to. What is going to happen then will be more wars for oil -- the military machine needs oil, the military machine will do whatever it takes to get oil. We will invade Mexico for oil, we will invade Venezuela for oil, we will invade anybody else who has oil, and simply seize it at gunpoint this time and leave the rest of the population to die. If you thought Iraq was a war for oil, Iraq was nuttin', bay-bee. And if you think U.S. troops are leaving Iraq anytime soon... bwhahahaha!
ReplyDeleteThing is, it will take the world at least 20 years to build up a military with force projection capabilities to bring an end to the American Empire. It takes a *long* time to build modern aircraft carriers, and without aircraft carriers, you can't bring sufficient air power across the giant moats on either side of the U.S. to actually bring the war back home. The only real question is whether it'll be Russian troops, Chinese troops, EU troops, or all of the above who end up marching through the streets of Washington in the victory parade at the end...
- Badtux the Gloomy Penguin
And that is they type of crap that leads to gated communities, with private cops, you know like the Banana republics south of here...
ReplyDeleteSo the Rich don't have to pay taxes, they can hide in their gated communities with their private security and watch while the rest of us struggle along
bastards
I kinda agree with tom. My vision of America's future is a cross between a So. American banana republic and 14th century France.
ReplyDeleteGated communities are the modern castles. I was in Mexicali, Mexico in the early 80's. Peons lived in hovels smaller than my 4th bedroom, and the upper class lived behind fucking walls.
That's where we are headed. Corporate media just promotes lies.
http://jazzbumpa.blogspot.com/2010/12/in-which-i-berate-columnist-again.html
BTW, I's not actually fond of saying WASF. I do it out of despair.
JzB
Uh, leave? That's not going to save you, unless you are headed for someplace far, far away.
ReplyDeleteFirst stop on the Expatriate Railway is Canada, and we guys are tied to you by the neck - you sink, we sink, and maybe even faster because we have only 1/10th your poulation and a much less diverse economy. Also, we have a Prime Minister who not-so secretly would rather be our President...Bushlet.
Canada's place in the New World Order is as Finland to the US's Soviet Union. That is, it will be allowed to remain independent and relatively free, under the condition that it serve as a conduit to the rest of the world. Finland remained a much more pleasant place to live compared to the Soviet Union for the entirety of that arrangement, and I suspect Canada shall remain the same.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that you need to leave *now* if that's what you're going to do, because once the Iron Curtain slams shut, it's going to become much, much harder to do so. Especially if you're a member of a traditionally persecuted class such as gays or Jews.
- Badtux the Apocalyptic Penguin